Between two World Wars, Syed Mujtaba Ali set out on a ship from India to Europe. This is his story

The mission of undocking a ship from the quay is always a matter of pandemonium, a chaotic task. Two things that everyone gets to observe are: a lot of running around and shouting.

Some of you may think that white people perform all their tasks within a cloak of silence, while we cannot do anything without a hue and cry and making life unbearable for our neighbours. This sort of idea is not entirely wrong. You must have seen in films how the English eat at their banquets without making a sound. The butlers come and go silently; there’s a muffled tinkling sound of forks and knives; people talk in low voices; everything is too well organised, well managed. And what happens at our invitations, at our festival feasts, at our big gatherings? Do I have the ability to describe that? Especially when my guru Sukumar Ray has left behind this description in his unforgettable words. Listen to this:

Come over, this way, with your dishes full of food,
Stand and watch, it’s a very very chaotic mood –
Someone’s calling for curd; another wants bread,
Some are holding empty plates and crying instead.
Over there, two Lords, with plates in their hands,
Are squabbling as wildly...

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